Electronic game playing devices which generate signals for symbols to be displayed on the screen of television receivers are known in the prior art and well illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,728,480; 3,778,058; 3,829,095; Re 28,507 and Re 28,598, all assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the entire disclosures of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference. The electronic game playing devices represented by these patents are game attachments for a raster scan display such as a conventional television receiver or television monitor and having electrical circuitry or components for generating signals which when supplied to the raster scan display will cause the display to show on the screen thereof moveable game playing indicia or symbols or spots. Alternatively, the game playing devices may be incorporated in the raster scan display itself.
The devices of certain ones of the aforementioned patents may be used to play several different games wherein certain ones of the symbols rebound from others when coincident therewith or disappear from the screen of the display when coincident therewith or experience other distinctive motions upon coincidence. Typical games employing these features would be simulated chase games, maze games, ping pong, hockey, tennis, handball and the like. In certain ones of these categories of games one or more player symbols are generated along with a game playing object or ball or puck spot such that the player spots are individually controllable in at least one direction.
Typically each participant or player is provided with one or more potentiometers for controlling at least the vertical and possibly also the horizontal location of his displayed symbol. In a typical game, as for example ping pong, the ball spot is caused to execute a horizontal sweep across the screen of the display until it is intercepted by a player spot across its direction of sweep. Ball motion is typically controlled by the charging and discharging of a capacitor, however, digital circuitry such as counters may be used instead. In a hockey game, for example, if the ball is not intercepted by a player but allowed to be hit into the goal then it may move to an off-screen position until reset by one of the players.
Many other representative games are also disclosed by the aforementioned patents. In order to extend the scope of the game playing devices apparatus was added to the devices described in the aforementioned patents to provide preprogrammed behavior for certain variables of the displayed spots or symbols. This is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,161, also assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In this patent a preprogrammed means such as a magnetic tape and tape reader is illustrated as being coupled to the game playing devices for automatically controlling certain ones of the variables of the displayed symbols in accordance with the information recorded on the tape to, thus, allow active participation by a player in determining the progress of the game while part of the progress of the game is predetermined by the information recorded on a selected game tape. The information recorded on the tape is analog information which simulates the electrical signals outputted by the controls of the game. As mentioned above, typically a pair of potentiometers is used for controlling the horizontal and vertical locations of a symbol; instead of using these potentiometers for actual symbol control they are used in conjunction with a voltage source to provide recorded audio analog information on the tape and the output of the tape is applied to one or more of the controls for a symbol, for example, a player symbol to automatically cause positioning of the symbol representing a player. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,161 is limited in that it requires a relatively large amount of bandwidth and is relatively expensive. Furthermore, it is limited in use in that it requires the generation of the actual control signals to be recorded on the pre-recorded means, such as an audio tape or disc.